Take out the Nazis one bullet at a time, again

There is plenty of exciting Nazi-shooting action in this one, even if it’s basically just a spruce up of a 2012 game.

Since September 3rd 1939, it has been a truth universally acknowledged in most non-German countries that it is totally OK to shoot actual Nazi soldiers.

Indeed, one could argue that rather a large percentage of popular culture from that period to today revolves around this theme, and frankly why not? Nazis are the perfect bad guys, whether they’re having a fistfight with Indiana Jones at an aerodrome while looting the Ark of the Covenant, stopping singing nuns from escaping to Switzerland with their family, or getting between BJ Blazkowicz and the exit to Castle Wolfenstein.

Rebellion’s Sniper Elite series has, as the name hints at, taken the “shooting all the Nazis” thing and run with it ever since its first release in 2005.

The graphics in the first game were clearly a product of their time (ie, full of polygons and generally terrible by today’s standards) and in 2012 a reboot with considerably better graphics was released, entitled Sniper Elite V2.

The story cast you as an Office of Strategic Services agent named Karl Fairburne, an accomplished sniper who is air-dropped into Berlin in April 1945 during the battle for the city at the end of World War II, when the Allied and Soviet armies were bearing down on the city.

Your job is to assassinate various Nazi and Soviet officials to stop the plans for the V2 rocket falling into Russian hands, vaguely echoing the real life Operation Paperclip that involved less .30-06 ammunition and more “no questions asked if you’ll come to America and help us make rockets” offers with a “before the Russians get hold of you” addendum for good measure.

Casually walking away from an explosion without looking at it is the hallmark of every self-respecting action hero.

It’s Berlin, April 1945 and your mission is to shoot a lot of Nazis.

The game did rather well and spawned two very good sequels — Sniper Elite III, set in North Africa, and Sniper Elite 4, set in Italy (see our review here).

Given that 4K and HDR were but the fevered dreams of ambitious technophiles in 2012, Rebellion have clearly decided that another shot at victory is in order with the release of Sniper Elite V2: Remastered for PC, PlayStation, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch — featuring full 4K and HDR support, as well as improved and remastered graphics and a generally updated experience all around. It also includes additional campaign levels and the “Kill Hitler” bonus mission, which has become a regular part of the series (and a fan favourite, for obvious reasons).

It looks amazing for the most part — although I did find some fairly uninspiring visuals at points — but still doesn’t change the fact it’s still a game from 2012.

For a start, the levels are incredibly linear — and pretty much all set in the bombed-out ruins of Berlin — and the lack of variety means that while it looks nice, it’s still just nice-looking ruins. There’s only a handful of guns in the main campaign, and looting ammo for your sub machine gun is almost impossible — I’d take out German or Russian soldiers armed with it and get a whole two bullets for my trouble.

Precision is the name of the game, with impressive cinematics triggering when you make a successful shot.

Despite being a remaster of an earlier game, some of the graphic elements are still a bit lacklustre.

The enemy AI is not the sharpest combat knife in the rack either, often running straight at you in an obliging fashion for easy shooting, or somehow managing to see you from halfway across the map between the branches of a shrubbery.

Apparently you can play the campaign mode as one of the characters from their Zombie Army series but I couldn’t seem to find that option. The multiplayer mode offers up to 16 players competing in a range of matches across seven maps too, if you’re looking for something a bit different to the regular first-person shooter based fare.

The good news is the series’ iconic the X-Ray Kill-Cam is present, and if you find it confronting it can be turned off, and pulling off a particularly tricky shot — especially at higher difficulty levels where there’s no aim assist activated and full bullet physics are at play — can be very rewarding.

The HDR effects are really good as well, especially on a high-end TV like the 4K QLED I was using to review the Xbox One version of the game. Lighting and shadows were really well done, but they didn’t always carry over to PC (it’s an Xbox Play Anywhere title), which left me to choose between amazing graphics (console) or more accurate controls (PC).

Shooting actual Nazis in video games is, of course, a wholesome and entertaining way to spend your time and Sniper Elite V2 Remastered isn’t a bad game — it’s just one that’s been overtaken by gameplay improvements since it was first released, so the remaster feels like a new coat of paint rather than a complete reworking and updating of the game.

If you’re a fan of the series then it’s worth getting for the sake of completeness, but for newcomers you’re much better off starting with Sniper Elite 4 instead.

No matter which entry in the series you grab from the armoury first though, you can be assured of the chance to shoot a lot of Nazis and, as always — kill Hitler.

Originally published as Take out the Nazis one bullet at a time, again